Xfer Serum Full Review – Key Features and Price
If you’re looking for a wavetable synthesizer that features a multi-core processor, a huge library of wavetables, and a multitude of macros, then you’ve come to the right place. In this full review, we’ll go over some of the key features of Xfer Serum and its price. This will help you decide if the software is right for your music production needs.
Xfer Serum is a wavetable synthesizer
If you’re looking for a good wavetable synthesizer, you’ll want to look at the Xfer Serum. This instrument has a variety of built-in presets and thousands of presets that are available from third-party vendors. Whether you’re a beginner in the music industry or a seasoned pro, you’ll find plenty of features and options to suit your style.
The Serum includes a variety of FX, such as Hyper, Dimension, and a wide range of envelopes. It also features eight LFOs and crazy routing. These FX allow you to get the sound you want with the utmost flexibility. For example, you can add modulation to any parameter using a blue ring, or simply drag it from one control to another.
The Serum wavetable synthesizer is a powerful, yet user-friendly program. The interface is direct, welcoming, and uncluttered. It also features prominent envelopes, LFOs, filters, and a wavetable visualizer. This is a wavetable synthesizer that is great for beginners. It’s available in VST, AAX, and AU formats.
The Serum features two identical wavetable oscillators. It comes with over 150 wavetable shapes, which is a huge range of sounds. You can load custom wavetables, too. Serum’s built-in wavetable editor is versatile, with a range of customization tools. Despite its many features, it’s easy to learn and experiment with the software. So, if you’re a wavetable synthesizer fan, Serum is an excellent choice.
There are a few limitations to the Serum. It lacks a built-in arpeggiator. Serum is a very good option for a beginner to get started with wavetable synthesizers. In fact, it’s the best wavetable synthesizer for beginners, and it’s even free!
It is a multi-core processor
While Serum is known as a CPU hog, it isn’t the most powerful one on the market. In fact, users have reported using more than 90 Serum instances in a single project, demonstrating its power and efficiency. Luckily, multi-core processors allow multiple instances to run simultaneously, and the overhead of running more than one instance is minimized. This means you won’t have to use track freeze or other CPU saving measures.
Serum has a modular system for composing music. You can combine different modulation sources using a drag and drop interface. A 16-slot mod matrix gives you extra control over active modulation connections. You can mix two or more different sources simultaneously, edit the modulation curve, or turn the amplitude of a single source into an infinitely complex one.
Serum is easy to use. The editor allows you to drag and drop parameters and edit them in real-time. The Serum interface features a convenient presets panel. The presets can be organized in the same way as other document folders. There are also preset sets that are ready for live performance. You can also use factory presets, which are designed to be easy to customize.
A great feature of Serum is its ability to modify waveforms with LFOs. It also allows users to draw any shape, including triangles, hexagons, and more. Users also love the wavetable editor’s flexibility. Users can load their own waveforms, and the editor’s interface is easy to understand. A dark color can help reduce eye strain, but it is not necessary.
It has a large collection of wavetables
The Xfer Serum wavetable editor is an excellent tool for creating your own wavetables. Besides the standard wavetables, it includes an entire collection of 150 wavetable shapes. There is no need to be a math genius to create your own wavetables. The tool’s user-friendly interface makes it easy to create your own wavetables, or tweak the preset ones.
The powerful wavetable editor in the Serum software can break down sound files into individual waveforms, and then export these to a wavetable file. Serum allows you to import single and multiple wavetables, and also lets you draw directly on the waveform. With its extensive collection of wavetables, the Serum editor can create the perfect sound for you. The program supports many different wavetable effects, such as spectral morphing, harmonic/spectral synthesis, and linear interpolation.
The multiband feature in the Serum interface allows you to shape the sound and create multiple, unique patches. You can assign individual wavetables to any control, or create a custom set using the Multiband feature. With this tool, you can even automate destinations. The Modulation matrix gives you the opportunity to modulate anything in Serum, from the source to the destination, without any special knowledge or expertise.
The wavetable library in Xfer Serum has more than a thousand presets that are ready to use. The wavetables are arranged in a logical order. Some of the wavetables are a sweep of a filter, while others are simply collections of single shapes. Regardless of their origin, wavetables offer a wide range of tones and are the perfect tool for producing a variety of sound effects.
It has a lot of macros
One of the things that make Xfer Serum a great software package is the amount of macros available. With this software, users can quickly create sound effects that can be used across multiple tracks. This software also includes tons of wavetables that can be imported into it. Those wavetables can be modified to add specific characteristics and even amplitude to your tracks. The user interface is very flexible and the main screen is easy to read. Moreover, there are 5 main pages, including a wavetable editor.
Users can also modify waveforms using drag-and-drop functionality. The user interface of the software is also very simple, making navigation through its various modules easy. Besides, Serum has 13 modes of distortion. Other features of the software include flanger and phaser. Moreover, if you want to get creative with your sounds, Serum also includes a modulation panel with four macro controls, 3 envelopes, and four LFO modules.
Although Serum is a powerful piece of software, it is surprisingly underutilized by beginners. It’s not easy to master it, so learning to use it effectively is necessary. Beginners should consider hiring a professional tuition to learn how to make professional sound using the software. You’ll find plenty of tutorials on the internet, as well as other free and paid courses. These courses will also help you understand the software’s macros and use them effectively.
As a bonus, Serum has well-implemented macro controls, allowing you to tweak multiple parameters at once. Macro control settings are easy to use, and editing them is simple. Users can edit macro controls in the main panel or Matrix tab. Factory presets also come with macro control sets, making it even easier to get started with Serum. However, these tools do come at a cost.
It can’t process live audio
The Serum package comes with over 400 expertly crafted presets that will cover every genre, from cinematic sound design to modern electronica. These are editable via a presets folder on your hard drive. You can organize them just like you would any other document folder. You can also prepare preset sets for live performance by editing them in this way. For a comprehensive review of Serum, read this full review of this software.
The Serum has many useful tools for waveform manipulation. It features an extensive collection of wavetables and can import wav files. The wave tables are almost infinite, and the software allows you to use them to create any sound you want. Moreover, the Serum wavetable editor has many drawing aids and is flexible enough to make custom waveforms. The screen of Serum is large and easy to read. There are 5 main pages for editing.
In addition to the filters, the Serum features a built-in effects section. It has a dedicated ‘Modulation Matrix’ for each effect, letting you assign modulation to different sources. Besides, you can tie LFOs and velocity to a filter or routing. Lastly, Serum’s effects section includes over 100 presets, including delay, chorus, reverb, chorus, and phaser.
A well-implemented macro system makes it easy to tweak multiple parameters at once. In addition, macros are simple to set up. Factory presets even come with macros already configured. However, the LFO tool in Serum isn’t particularly useful if you’re an Ableton user. It has no real use if it can’t process live audio, and it is too expensive.